Industrial Boomtown Asset Lures Renters with a Neighborhood Vibe

Spanish Fort, Ala.—Passco Cos. has acquired The Arlington at Eastern Shore, a 300-unit, multifamily property Spanish Fort, a suburb of Mobile, Ala., for an unspecified price. It’s located on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay in Baldwin County, about 13 miles from downtown Mobile and 30 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico.

The property was completed in 2009 and features a “big house” community design by Humphreys and Partners Architects with individual unit entrances. Each multi-unit building appears as a single-family home with an attached garage, giving the property a neighborhood feel, rather than a multifamily vibe.

The property features one-, two- and three-bedroom floorplans, with walk-in closets, 9-foot ceilings, and attached garages. Common amenities include an indoor basketball court, stocked fishing pond, oversized pool and sundeck with poolside canopies, resident lounge, car care center and fitness center. Gary Goodman, Senior Vice President Acquisitions of Passco Cos., says that Passco plans to make some value-add improvements to the property, including installing wood-like flooring in each of the 132 ground-floor units, as well as adding a dog park and new exterior paint.

According to Goodman, the factor that most strongly drew Passco to the property is the area’s population growth, which is anticipated to increase by another 3.7 percent over the next five years. Among other things, this part of Alabama is currently enjoying an industrial boom, which is creating new jobs in the region.

For example, Airbus recently selected Mobile as home to its only aircraft assembly site in the Western hemisphere, making this region its sole industrial hub. Mobile was named the third-largest “industrial boomtown” in the U.S. by Forbes magazine in 2014.

The Arlington at Eastern Shore has maintained an average occupancy rate of 96.5 percent over the past two years. The property was acquired using Fannie Mae financing.